Sometime between the holding of the TV interviews at the finish line in Parma and the press conference one hour later, Mark Cavendish did a complete about turn in his views on the finish of stage two of the Giro d’Italia.
The emotional sprinter gesticulated angrily at Alessandro Petacchi as the Italian crossed the line just ahead of him, waving his fist at his rival and then complaining about his sprinting to his HTC Highroad staff when he rolled to a halt.
While Petacchi didn’t block him during the frenzied sprint to the line, he did deviate from his line twice. It was something Cavendish said denied him victory, and he let fly in several television interviews after the finish. Anger was clear on his face for quite a while afterwards, and even when spraying the champagne after receiving the Maglia Rosa, he appeared to take little satisfaction from the moment.
However, less than an hour later, his attitude had changed completely. It’s difficult to know if it was simply the case that he calmed down and analysed the situation, realising he went too far – his version of what happened – or if the team staff sat him down, told him he had over-reacted, and instructed him to apologise. Perhaps the truth is somewhere in-between.
Whatever the reason, it was a very different Mark Cavendish who walked into the conference room in the media centre and gave the following monologue:
“I think everybody knows the mentality of the sprinter, and knows that it is winning or nothing. Even a rider who isn’t a sprinter, let alone normal people, can imagine the adrenaline that goes through you in a bunch sprint. Today in the sprint, I felt that Alessandro moved from his line. This was because with the experience he has – he is a great rider, a great champion, and he jumped before me. In my eyes, he turned left, he used tactics to block me. But in my life, this has been sprinting. This is the tactics you use in sprinting – as well as the power, this is what sprinting is about.
“In the past, every time I move one centimetre from my line, I am disqualified. But this isn’t Alessandro’s fault. This is the fault of the organisers or the commissaires or whoever is in charge of the race at the time. For me, I felt hard done by because with the same movement, I would be disqualified. But this isn’t Alessandro’s fault, like I said.
“So for me to take my frustration with the jury out on Alessandro is not fair. So when I have time to calm down and think logically about the situation, when the adrenaline stopped going, I learned that it is not fair for me to make a complaint about Alessandro because of my frustration with other people.
“The thing I loved about sprinting, the reason I loved sprinting when I grew up was not just the physical aspect, but it was the tactical aspect. For me to forget this when I have to the adrenaline at the finish is easy. I want to say if I caused some problems with the jury, with Alessandro. In the heat of the moment, it is not fair for me to take my frustration, with the prejudice against me, out on Alessandro.
“So for me he is a great guy, a great champion, and I hope we can make a great show for the rest of the Giro.”
Talk of bias against him:
Cavendish clearly feels that he has been treated harshly in the past. He has complained about race jury decisions on several occasions, including during the 2009 Tour de France when he was declassified on stage 14 to Besançon. When asked who was prejudiced against him, he didn’t give a specific answer, but believes that some are.
“I don’t know, but for me, there doesn’t need to be fault to be disqualified nowadays. It is the price of success…you get that people try to pull you down,” he said. “Whether that is other riders, whether that is other teams, whether that is a commissaire. That is how it is, that is what I deal with. It is the price of being successful.”
Because of that, he said that he wouldn’t sprint the way Petacchi sprinted yesterday. “In the past, yes. Now, no. But let me explain…that is not because I don’t think it is correct, it is because I feel I’d just get disqualified for it. For me, sprinting has always been about the tactics as well as the effort you put in.
“In the past, I have been disqualified for things that I shouldn’t have been disqualified for. In the race today, I get frustrated because of that, because I feel now that I have to watch everything I do, but it is not fair for me to take that out on Alessandro today. It is not his fault that I got penalised in the past.”
Cavendish is known for being very vocal when things go in a way that he doesn’t like; it’s part of his nature and, depending on your perspective, is either refreshing or frustrating. He also lets his legs do the talking, though, and it wouldn’t be surprising if he wins today’s stage to prove a point.
“I absolutely think it is possible for a sprint,” he said, looking forward to the finish in Rapallo. “The stage is for sure not as easy as today, and there is a very technical finish. But it is possible for a bunch sprint.”
If he does hit the line first, he will do so in the Maglia Rosa, extending his lead via the bonus seconds and winning with flair. His complaints against Petacchi meant that the first hour or so after the finish was one spent looking at what went wrong – the sprint for victory – versus what went right – taking over the race lead – but by the time of the press conference, he had changed his focus somewhat.
That was fortunate, as the Italian people are proud of the pink jersey, and believe it should be appreciated. “For me, this hasn’t overshadowed it, because to wear the pink jersey in any year is an incredible emotion,” Cavendish said, when asked if the sprinting issue had taken away from the fact that he was in the Maglia Rosa. “To wear it in a special year for Italy is even more beautiful. Especially after the hard work the guys did for most of the day – for most of the stage we were controlling it solo. We had some help from Garmin at the end.
“To be able to keep the Maglia Rosa on the team is absolutely beautiful. It is a great honour to wear it and it is a great honour for the team. They are a great group of guys, they rode like they were motorbikes yesterday, and rode like bigger motorbikes today.”
His team-mate Marco Pinotti had the lead after the team time trial; that’s passed to the Briton, and he believes that he could hold onto it for a little more time. He believes both today and tomorrow could be bunch sprints, although he acknowledges that both finishes are hard.
“I hope to keep it another couple of days. If I don’t, I don’t,” he said. “But we can be content with the team time trial yesterday and I think out of the 21 stages, we have got riders who can achieve good results over those 21 stages. Of course it has already been a successful Giro…hopefully it will continue to be a successful Giro.”
On that note, Cavendish was asked before the race what he would consider to be a success; his answer was taking at least one stage win. While HTC Highroad has triumphed in the team time trial, he was almost certainly talking about individual victories.
He went close yesterday and, on the basis of his speed in closing down Petacchi, looks likely to achieve that goal at some point in the next ten days. Don't be surprised if it's a lot sooner than that.